Greetings from my Vacation!

Hello All, Phil and I are in St. Lucia, the beautiful and amazing Sandals Grande resort. Right now, as I write to you Philly is getting a massage and I am sunbathing on the back patio of our Private Beach Rondoval.

Last year, when celebrating our Honeymoon at Sandals in Jamaica we had a little run in with a hurricane, a flood and an emergency hotel change. To make a long and excruciating story short Sandals allowed for us to take our second vacation with them with a pretty hefty discount so here we are!

I have been exploring the food world of this Island since we arrived. On the private ride from the airport our driver was very informative and knowledgeable about the exports and local flavors. One of the most interesting thing that we saw and learned about were banana trees. Many years ago, before tourism came to the Caribbean, bananas, sugar, and other local produce were the primary mean of income for the government and people of this Island. At this time, they still export there yummy bananas to England but Tourism has take over as the main source of income. There are banana trees all over the Island even today, when you drive through the beautiful villages on the side of the road you can see them. Each banana tree takes about 9 months to grow from its seed. Each tree produces about 4 large bunches of fruit and then they cut the tree down because they only fruit once. (I didn’t know any of this...very cool).

The resort itself has many selections for food, one restaurant that serves traditional Caribbean cuisine with a menu filled with jerk spices and ceviche, they also have Italian, French, a London themed pub, and tonight we are going to travel to another hotel for Japanese teppanyaki. Over the weekend we will be going on an Island tour which will include scenic view of the famous Pitons (mountains here on the island-the name of their yummy local beer) a tour of the natural sulfur springs and active volcano, and a local lunch buffet including traditional Creole inspired foods.

When we get home, of course I will share photos of our adventure, photos of all out lizard friends we have found in our yard and of course pictures of the food!

Cheers with my Piton beer and lime to you all! J